I'm really glad that Blackberry finally came up on HN because there's something I've been interested to get feedback about on here.
I feel like a large section of the developer community doesn't understand the power of BBM. It's an application developed by RIM that allows for high speed conversations similar to texting except instead of sending messages over the SMS protocol, it uses the PIN message infrastructure that RIM developed so that it could push emails at a very high speed to phones.
BBM is RIM's secret sauce to their cell phones. It's amazing to me, but having a text-based conversation with someone over BBM is ENTIRELY different than even a threaded SMS conversation on two iPhones. Firstly, the messages are sent between the phones much quicker. It comes with complete outbound/read/delivery reports, and allows for a much greater level of complexity in the messages that are sent. Secondly, it uses a buddying system that changes the dynamic of conversation. You have your normal contact list, and then your 'bbm contacts'. I have 90 BBM contacts, (mind you those are all over people I know who also have Blackberrys and we have connected the two phones), but at school I knew people who had 250 or more. Thirdly, it allows for inline insertion of almost any content one wants. Be that sound notes, music, pictures, etc. It also allows for GROUP chatting. In a way that is simply impossible with SMS and the way SMS billing works with the American cell phone companies today.
I can't stress enough, there is a developer GOLDMINE here. The first group that writes an app which takes advantage of the inter-phone PIN messaging system that RIM has developed to do more than just BBM is going to be looking at a lot of money. I've had friends ask me multiple times why I didn't develop an app that would allow you to play chess or battleship against your BBM contacts (those are two simple ideas, the possibilities are immense), and after some research I got sort of turned off by the BBM api calls. There didn't seem to be enough of them, and the documentation was quite confusing. I feel like the next iteration of the Blackberry API will change this though, and I have a hunch that there is going to be a new wave of apps specially designed to take advantage of this system.
Keep in mind there's nothing like this on iPhone. There is no special code, (like the Bberry PIN) that I can give someone to specially link our two iPhones.
What is everyone's thoughts?
Your logic is spot-on. It seems like so many young intelligent people would question the opportunity cost of all that time lost versus the gain of having the iPhone a few days early?
I don't understand why everyone is up voting this? Is the fact that something similar happened before supposed to alleviate our concerns about the fact that it's happening now? There have been world wars, but if one was happening now I wouldn't up vote the wikipedia entry for WWII.
"But his shop is a lone outpost; in a single generation, the American who built, repaired, and tinkered with technology has evolved into an entirely new species: the American who prefers to slip that technology out of his pocket and show off its killer apps. Once, we were makers. Now most of us are users."
So humbling and true. Most people will throw out any given piece of technology rather than try and repair it. And speak of building something yourself, that's practically unheard of. Maybe it's only people around me who think and act this way, but I'm 22 and all these people aren't going anywhere.
Can you remind me again how you qualify a phone (lost, drunkenly) as 'stolen'. You seem to be using that word rather loosely, when the person who found that phone in fact found lost property, not stolen property. Nobody stole from Apple here, rather Apple made a grave mistake which it seems in hindsight they then used the police to assist in helping them recover from.
How can you say that Apple's clear and apparent ability to influence the actions of the police isn't at least a little bit frightening? A little bit?
It doesn't matter whether Gruber or Gawker posted those pictures, the fact of the matter is that the journalist who did post them faced what seems to be police persecution at Apple's direction.
Consider, just for a moment, that it had been a Windows Mobile 7 phone. Do you think the police would be breaking into his home?
I'm graduating from university next week at a school with twelve thousand kids and this happens all the time to everyone I know. It's so mundane to learn some new social goings-on around campus that it's cliche to mention you found out on the site. I hate it for the same reason. On graduation day, leaving facebook will signify a new phase of life.
If you had any doubts as to the important of Wikileaks, give this video ten minutes. This is cold blooded murder. Those people were clearly unarmed, and the conversation that occurs over the radio is disgusting. It was like they were begging to just pull the trigger, no matter what they were aiming at.
Where is the public outrage over this?
When a government cannot pass a bill due to overwhelming public opposition, using an alternate means such as a treaty like this is policy laundering. It's disgusting and I can't wait to see ACTA covered on the Nightly News. This genuinely frightens me.
Agreed. It represents a trending technology use in mainstream culture. It's these kinds of little events that can lead to brilliant start up ideas. Let's stop being such pretentious 'hackers'.
I think this is a brilliant. You know how many goofy girlfriends there are out there who would find this to be a unique, funny, yet functional gift for their boyfriends? Lots.
This really is a great idea. I think this style of cloud cracking might have larger applications as well, outside of just PSK. Inexperienced users will pay to crack systems like this.